Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/713430
22 couldn't quantify the look versus the actress. That rawness of her performance is what made it. M: Yeah, she was my favorite character and learning about her. I had Victoria Wood make FLH's beautiful wig. I spent time choosing hair that was very natural and textural. Fannie's look had to show this tough life and have it convey right when she walks on. She was a cameo, but the old adage that there are no small parts holds true, as was proven by her. C: The combination of what you did with the hair and what Sabrina Wilson did with her make-up was fantastic. A lot of care went into not only stripping Aisha down and making her raw, but also taking away every evidence of polish. She had beautiful groomed eyebrows, so Sab painted in fuller brows and we gave her face some distress and sheen, anything we could do to sort of creep some of the reality of that time. Sabrina also assisted me in applying Bryan's prosthetics and handled Bradley Whitford as Hubert Humphrey. M: Let's talk about Stephen Root C: Stephen Root is a lovely man who didn't necessarily evoke J. Edgar upon fi rst glance but he's one of those actors, like Melissa, who transforms in every role. The question kept arising, what else can you do for me? I mentioned to Stephen that in Foxcatcher, we used plumpers in each of our actor's noses to give their nose a slightly different shape and he was all for that! Those plumpers/baby-bottle nipples immediately changed his look and pushed him closer to the character, closer to that bulldog look of J. Edgar. M: True story. Casting did an amazing job. Stephen Root is a perfect example of an actor walking into our trailer with- out any prior prep, using whatever resources we had at hand to affect as much of a change as possible. So shaving back his hairline, getting rid of about 25 percent of his hair, using colored mousse daily and shaping his front hairline to give him more of a rounded/bloated face. I feel like Stephen rep- resents our cast of characters as a whole and their experience. C: Ultimately, all our work is only ever as good as the sup- port we have and on this, we had a dream team working with us. Our talented and considerate director, Jay Roach, who was on board for whatever we did, and Scott Ferguson, our producer, who never shook his head no and helped facilitate anything we threw at him, and of course, our prospective departments. M: I had Terrie Velazquez Owen as my key. She did beautiful work daily and made it happen for me with a great atten- tion to detail. We split up the supporting cast as: Inside the White House (LBJ and his world) and outside the White House (the country itself represented through MLK and his movement). Our BG Hair room was amazing with Barry Rosenberg and Quan "Q" Pierce heading up the barbering and Jules Holdren prepping our ladies. Truly, there were so many amazing hairdressers that I am grateful for, every one of them and their contributions. We had people come in and work for us for not a lot of money and they were all so great and talented and enthusias- tic: Victoria Wood (wigmaker), Natasha Ladek (wigmaker), Corey Powell (colorist), Brian Andrew Tunstall as third hair, Barry Rosenberg as lead barber with Quan "Q" Pierce and Jules Holden prepping our BG women. C: In addition to Frank and Sabrina, I had the assistance of Dennis Liddiard, Geneva Morgan, Marsha Shearrill, Jenda Cipperley, Teresa Vest, Bernadette Beauvais and Joanetta Stowers. On the prosthetic side, Lesley Becerra and Sven Granlund were Andy Clement's right and left hands for his company Creative Character Engineering. Also, a big thanks to Allan Apone and MEL for hooking me up with Mackie's dental gap fi ller—funny thing, after all that, you never even see Mackie's teeth on camera. • *Lyndon Baines Johnson was the 36th President of the United States (1963–69), a position he assumed after his service as the 37th Vice President (1961–63).